On this day, June 20, in the year 1893 another trial that had caught this nations attention, ended with finding the accused not guilty. Lizzie Borden was fascinating over 100 years ago and she is still fascinating. In 1893, without your Headline News, CNN, MSBC and Fox News, this trial’s proceedings were devoured in newspapers across the country. It was talked about and speculated just like the Anthony trial. Of course they are two very different murder trials but yet similar in some ways.
I grew up playing jump rope with my friends quoting a creepy, famous chant about Lizzie Borden.
“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty one.”
For the longest we jumped to that chant without knowing exactly whom we were talking about. But once I did learn, the same shameless side of my personality that is drawn to this type of story had me reading what I could find about Lizzie Borden.
The time which this murder and trial took place is another draw for me. The first thing I learned is the chant turned out to be not true. Well not true as far as how many whacks her stepmother and father received.
Lizzie Borden was a “spinster” who at the age of 32 she was charged with the murder of her parents. She is the one who found the bodies on a hot summer day, on August 4, 1892, in Fall River Massachusetts. It was a gruesome find. It was determined that Andrew Jackson Borden and his second wife, Abigail were hacked to death with a hatchet. Actually their skulls were bashed so much it was disfiguring.
Over my years of reading on the subject and watching shows about the events on the History Channel and Discovery, I learned that her father was very wealthy and very cheap. While other families on the street had the indoor plumbing, Mr. Borden still insisted his family use slop pots, which were thrown out into the yard daily. He was tight fisted in business and in his home. You get the picture that Mr. Borden was not the life of the party.
Lizzie had a sister, Emma, who was also unmarried. Emma and Lizzie lived in the front part of the upstairs, which was divided. Mr. Borden and Abby lived in the back half. Meals were very seldom eaten together and you get the idea that there was a good bit of tension living in the house. The sisters were upset with their father over some land he was dividing between family members, family of their stepmother. They didn’t see that decision to be fair. Outside of the immediate family, people did not like Mr. Borden in general as well.
The Borden’s maid, Bridgett, told the police that Lizzie called for her to tell her someone had killed “father”. The maid was lying upstairs, as she was not feeling well. She had been washing windows and became ill. When police arrived they found Mr. Borden in a sitting room on a sofa lying half on the sofa. His feet were still on the floor. His face was so badly hacked there was no way to recognize who he was. The stepmother was found upstairs in the floor face down. It appeared she had been making the bed when she was attacked from behind. However the stepmother wasn’t found until later by the maid, while neighbors were comforting Lizzie.
Motive was established as about money and some hard resentment. Upon his death his daughters became very wealthy. I believe that Lizzie’s demeanor caused her to be under suspicion quickly. Just like now, people judge how you act while under the umbrella of suspicion. The hatchet found in the cellar, which officials believed to be the murder weapon, was clean and the handle was broken, and was dismissed as officially being the weapon used. No clothes with bloodstains were ever found. With the type of murder that took place, the killer would have to have been covered in blood.
There was testimony that the maid saw Lizzie, that morning, burning a dress in the kitchen, telling the maid it was so old, it wasn’t even fit to be rags. The times Lizzie claimed to be in and out of the house, down in the cellar and the shed in the back yard just didn’t seem to make sense either.
Previous behavior was suspicious. It was said Lizzie attempted to buy prussic acid from a pharmacist. Prussic acid is hydrogen cyanide. The druggist refused to sell it to Lizzie. He testified in the inquest, she told him she wanted to use it to clean a sealskin coat. Shortly before the murders the entire household became very ill. However tests were made during the autopsies to see if any toxins were present and none were found.
Similar to the Anthony trial today, you have a trial around circumstantial evidence. You have the accused with behavior that makes her look guilty. You have motive, one for money the other for freedom. You have two women who when presented with the skulls of the victims became very ill, with Lizzie even passing out. You have two women who each fascinated the country as well as the actual details of the murder themselves. It seems that we are much more fascinated by women who kill compared to men. We have a much harder time seeing women actually killing, especially their own children.
Lizzie Borden was acquitted on this day due to reasonable doubt. The information about the prussic acid was not allowed as well as her testimony during the original inquest. The jury of all men took one hour and a half to reach their decision. Many things were presented that looked very incriminating, but there were too many holes.
After the trial she took her money and moved to a nice neighborhood. The home was large and had indoor plumbing and bathrooms. Emma Borden lived with Lizzie for twelve years until she moved out in 1905, over some disagreement. Lizzie died on June 1, 1927 from pneumonia. She had started calling herself Lizbeth instead of Lizzie. The sisters had to settle with their stepmother’s family and did so as quietly as possible wanting to avoid further lawsuits. Since it was determined that Abby died first, all of her assets went to Mr. Borden and then to the two daughters. The settlement was said to be substantial.
There have been many theories over these many years. Some even think she removed her clothes and killed her parents while naked. No matter how much we look at the crime scene photos, evidence and read the professional opinions, we will never know what really happened that day in 1892. The same goes for Caylee Anthony. We will never really know what happened the day that helpless child died. 
Lizzie was a curiosity to people and children, and not one very many people wanted to be associated with. I am sure whatever the outcome of the Anthony trial, Casey will be pretty much like the plague. She isn’t going to be invited to many parties.
Take care and stay safe,
KJ
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